Resurrection of a Singer Drawing Room No. 1 Cabinet

 

     Today's story started several months ago when I saw a Singer Drawing Room No. 1 cabinet for sale on Facebook Market Place.  As usual the pictures on the ad were not very good.  The price was very affordable but it was a couple hours drive from home as it was a little south of Columbus, OH.   The ad said there was no machine included and the sale just included the cabinet.  After chatting with the owner for a bit he said that he would give me the cabinet if I came to pick it up in the next day or so......otherwise, he said it was going to the dump.  Hearing that I started the car and headed to Ohio!  

      The trip there was pretty uneventful.  I'm used to driving to Columbus as I used to drive to National Trail Raceway frequently to drag race.  The owner's address seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere.  It was in a little town with one street and that's it.  Anyway, I arrived, and when the owner showed me the cabinet I quickly realized that someone had gutted most of the mechanical parts out of the cabinet!  No treadle wheel, no belt guard, no pitman arm, even the machine platform had been removed from the cabinet.  The only mecanical parts left in the cabinet where the treadle pedal and the lift spring mechanism.   Obviously I was disappointed......but it was free and I wasn't about to leave it there after a two and a half hour drive knowing that it was headed for the dump!  Below are pics of the cabinet when I got home from the trip.

    The cabinet had been refinished at some point and honestly they didn't do a bad job.  As a matter of fact, what you see in the picture is mostly their refinishing effort.  There were some areas that I touched up but for the most part I didn't refinish this cabinet.

    The big challenge ahead of me was finding all of the appropriate parts to make this cabinet complete.   I started looking everywhere for parts.  I even considered buying complete cabinets that were in bad shape to pirate the parts from.  I actually had two lined up but both deals fell though.  I posted in all the sewing machine groups that I'm part that I was looking for the parts.  Finally, after a few months, I recieved a message from a  member of one of my sewing machine groups.  This person told me that they knew someone from another group that was moving and was giving away the parts that I needed.  The catch was they were moving that next day!  Given the difficulty of finding these parts I had to take avantange of the opportunity.  I contacted the owner of the parts and made arrangements to me her at a point on her trip.  We agreed to meet in  Hagerstown, MD which is a little less than a 3 hour drive (one way).  I called off work for the next day and made the trip.  The owner of the parts very nice sewing machine enthusiast and was just happy that the parts were going to be used to bring a cabinet back to life.  

    I have to take this opportunity to point out how kind and giving the people within the sewing community are.  We all share the same passion and more often than not will go out of their way to help others out.  It's awesome!  Below are pictures of the parts that were given to me.

    Now that I had all the parts the fun could begin!  I take that back, the fun had already started.....I get great ammusment from hunting for machines or parts.  I'm not sure why....I just do!  

    I had originally planned to make a new top for the platform that would allow me to put my 1888 Improved Family with Apple Blossom decals in it.  The platform that came with the parts that I recieved was made for a rectangular base 27 (VS2).....but it was broken.  I went back and forth on what to do and after doing some research I found out that these cabinets were available for Singer IF's, VS2's, 27's and 24's.   Given that information I decided to fix the platform instead of building a new top for it.  This was pretty easy.....it just required some gluing as I had all the broken pieces.  

    I also had to fabricate a new machine tilt back post and bracket as it was missing.  This bracket attaches to the right hinge bolt.  When the machine/platform is lifted into it's highest position the post goes through a hole in the top of the cabinet.  This allows the machine to be tilted back to rest on the post so you can service the underneath of the machine.  It turned out nice but it's not quite complete in the pictures as it's missing it's black tack bumper that goes on top of the post.  I've ordered the  tack bumper but haven't recieved it yet.

   Since the Drawing Room No. 1 cabinets were made in the 1880's through sometime in the mid 1890's I needed to find a machine that would fit that time period.  My research shows that the DR02 cabinet started showing up around 1895ish.  Given this information and the fact that it had a platform for a 27 in it, the logical choice for me was to display my 1894 Singer 27 with Dogwood decals in the cabinet.

   Overall, I'm happy that I was able to keep this cabinet out of the dump and transform it back into a functional and beautiful sewing machine cabinet.  I'm please with the way it came out.

   Thanks to everyone who helped make this Drawing Room No. 1 cabinet resurrection possible!

   Enjoy the pics!  Excuse the extra pics of the Dogwood machine.....I couldn't help myself!